To Quote a Mute
by knobbly knees
Summary: Fourteen psychologists and therapists, two doctors, three spiritual healers of sorts, five specialists, and still, no one could figure out why Uchiha Itachi would not speak. /AU/ High School Fic.
1. Prologue

Doctor Watanabe looked directly into his new patient's eyes, not entirely knowing if he would come to a definitive answer for the boy's crying mother, or his unresponsive father.

"Can you hear me?"

The teenager simply quirked an eyebrow in response, and to back up that fact, Watanabe saw the boy focus his line of vision on himself. So he wasn't deaf or suffering from Aphasia. Puzzled, but slightly peeved, the elderly man tried, as so many had before him, to get the boy to speak, going for a rather blunt tactic.

"Why don't you want to talk?"

A sigh. The boy he was trying to _understand_, was getting tired of the session designed to _help_ him.

_Ungrateful brat._

A failed attempt at a repressed sob came from the petite dark haired woman standing against the wall, her husband pressing a large hand on her shoulder, and rubbing it in an obviously forced comforting matter, judging from the scowl adorning his aristocratic visage.

Already, in a seven minute evaluation, Doctor Watanabe had given up. He didn't do so lightly, but from experience, he knew a lost cause when he saw one, and the sixteen year old in front of him fit all the necessities to deem him so.

A boy who's vocal cords were intact, but had never spoken in his life equates to a lost cause, in Doctor Watanabe's opinion.

Add that to the list of thirteen other psychologist's, and therapist's opinions.

Closing his eyes, and pinching the bridge of his nose, Watanabe quenched his annoyance and frustration. He looked up at the boy's parents, and simply stared them down, not bothering to be compassionate as the family had heard the same words spoken to them _ohsomany_ times, in regards to their son.

"I'm sorry."

And with that, Mikoto burst into another set of sobs, her husband's brow furrowing fractionally, until his mask was once again set in place, giving away nothing from the blank expression.

Looking over at the lanky long-haired teen, Watanabe couldn't help but wonder why the hell Uchiha Itachi wouldn't speak.

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Ahhh... This, my lovely readers, is the result of random ideas induced by Google, and too much free time on my part. :) Not that I'm complaining...;D

Now, this is kind of important...Well, I'm not stopping my updates for Talking to a Wall, see, just decided to try my hand at internal thought and jazz. Updates for this may be slow, and it may just not evolve into anything... I haven't a clue as to where it's going, but I have a general idea what's going to happen...Don't know whether to make it ItaShi or not yet, and like I said (typed?) updates, if any, might be slow...

So, if this gets a positive response, I'll continue! :) So please please please review! :)

I do not own Naruto.

And Aphasia is a speech disorder, including symptoms in which one is unable to comprehend or produce spoken or written words. Courtesy of Wikipedia, which I don't own either :)

Review, please... If you do, I'll do a nice little (terrible, random, idiotic, giddy)dance, which you won't be able to see, but will be able to imagine! :)

Thanks for reading, and please review! :)


	2. Chapter 1

Itachi always let his mother have her way in regards to consultations.

It was only fair, he mused, that a mother be allowed to hold onto any semblance of hope they could grip, when one was in such a situation as Mikoto. It was all she really had. But that hope, that had once run rampant through both his parents, had turned to resignation within Fugaku, and pure desperation within Mikoto.

Sasuke never hoped.

At first, his parents took that as the young Uchiha not caring for his older brother, but Itachi knew better. He had never conversed with Sasuke, at all, so it was only rational that the now eleven year old see him as an older brother that was as quiet as the ocean after a storm. He hadn't ever known an Itachi who acted like other teenagers, laughing and talking in loud voices, merely an Itachi who entered a room without warranting attention, or who's only indication that he was listening was a nod, here and there.

And that was how the two siblings were. Sasuke would talk (granted, not as much as other pre-teens) and Itachi would listen.

Simple as that.

So, since that was the way it had always been, Itachi didn't want to change that, and he guessed neither did Sasuke. But seeing the little shred of constant longing in his mother's eyes still _hurthurthurt_. He loved his mother, but when Fugaku and her fought, it always ended with Mikoto going:

"I love Itachi! Don't you? If you did, you would _care_!"

And of course Fugaku would have to respond, even if he didn't exactly comprehend his disoriented wife, claiming that he_ ofcoursewithoutadoubt_ did love Itachi.

But, didn't loving someone mean accepting them for themselves, quirks and flaws included. And yet, Mikoto, who had known her silent son since birth, wanted him to be the exact opposite to he was, because she '_loved'_ him.

It made no sense.

Fugaku, who had long since abandoned his wife's frenzied search for someone to _curefixchange_ their son, had resigned himself to the fact that the son he always wanted, was, in fact, _not_ the son he always wanted. And he, unlike Mikoto, realised that he couldn't change his son.

Like Sasuke, Fugaku knew he probably would never change his son.

Ah. Just because Fugaku couldn't, didn't mean he didn't want Itachi to talk.

And that was where Sasuke and Fugaku differed.

Of course, as a father, Fugaku must have hoped to have a son to interact with, speak with. But whereas Sasuke never coveted the thing Mikoto was _surelydefininetly_ going to achieve, a _talkingspeakingokay_ Itachi, or what Fugaku _ohsoverymuch_ wanted. He wouldn't know Itachi if he started to actually talk, and be 'normal'.

Sasuke knew Itachi.

Fugaku wanted to know his son.

Mikoto _lovedlovedloved_ her son, but wanted him to be _fixedcuredchanged_.

And Itachi?

He didn't want to be _fixedcuredchanged_, if that meant not knowing himself. But, neither did he want his family falling apart, due to desires opposing contentment, and acceptance.

He wanted his mother to be happy, without the bloodshot eyes after another appointment that had of course come to those final two words that were his mother's own trigger.

_I'm sorry._

How many times had he thought that phrase? Seeing his father simply gaze at his distressed wife, or having Sasuke endure those silences that just_ followed_ Itachi would simply make him _want_ to scream out.

But he never did scream out.

And for that he was sorry.

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Yeah, yeah, love me.

Actually, that makes me sound very weird and not knobbly knees-esque at all... Ugh.

ANYWAY! So, yeah, here's Itachi! Adore him! I do XD Ah, yeah, so what'd you think, eh? I tried to go for internal and yet not ones own perspective thought, here... What did you think?

I'm not very happy with this, but..Meh. Up it goes.

And thanks to all my wonderful reviewers from last time! :D

**Reviews?** :D


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